Merry Christmas and Happy.........Anniversary?

I am very excited about this weekend. I have an opportunity to take pictures of another wedding. I haven't even met the bride and groom or any of the family. I've spoken with the mother of the bride and they sound like nice people. I'm looking forward to meeting them and looking forward to the wedding.

I'm also excited because I get to use my new camera!!!! Bruce bought me the Canon Rebel T2i for Christmas. It's my new baby. I love her and she is beautiful. haha

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Speaking of weddings...we celebrated our twentieth anniversary on the twenty-second of December. What a great day our wedding day was! I love my husband more and more each day.

We usually don't do anything for our anniversary since it is so close to Christmas, but this year we decided that after Christmas we would take a few days and slip away. We did that this week and headed up to Pigeon Forge.

I always take a picture of Bruce behind the wheel when we go on a trip. It's our traditional "Gettin' outta Dodge" pic.


The scenery on the way up was so beautiful. Since we had a white Christmas, everything was still covered in the cold, white, delight. Lovely, lovely!

This is my favorite picture. Look at those gorgeous snow clad mountains!

The closer we got to the mountains, the more we saw these beautiful icicles hanging on the side. It was a beautiful ride to Tennessee.

When we got to Pigeon Forge, we stayed at the Park Tower Inn.

Bruce did good finding us a nice hotel. We had a private balcony with a great view.

And a nice warm fireplace to snuggle next to.

We relaxed in the room a little bit and then leisurely made our way to Outback for a late supper, using a gift card my friend gave us for our anniversary. Love me some Alice Springs Chicken!

I love seeing Dollywood at Christmas. It is truly a winter wonderland. Everything is covered in lights and the snow makes it even prettier. I was hoping we could see the lights this year and was kind of disappointed when I thought our plans weren't going to happen. Then the Lord gave us...GAVE US...TWO FREE season's passes. I was really shocked. I admit. Then we find out Bruce was off from, before Christmas to after New Year's. So we took advantage of the time and the passes and made our way up the mountain. God knows the desires of our hearts and it was a blessing!!! I never prayed over it. Just kept that little desire to myself, but God knew. He always knows.

Here's Bruce kneeling down by Jerry Clower's name. Bruce patterns a lot of his story telling after Jerry Clower. Hilarious!

We saw the Kingdom Heirs. They were singing some good Christmas music. The bass singer sang You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and did a fantastic job.

We also enjoyed some awesome bluegrass Christmas music. These guys were really good. We had decided to buy their CDs and then forgot. It was a good deal too! Oh well...maybe next time. I loved the voice of the bass player. He had that great mellow, high pitched tenor sound that every Bluegrass group needs.

We saw a lot of great shows. It was so cold outside that the shows were definitely a main attraction. LOL One show we saw was Babes In Toyland. We saw it once before when we went at Christmas. I have to say this was my favorite part, when the family flies over the audience. This was the last season for this show. I wonder what they'll be working on next!

We boarded the Dollywood steam engine train and went on a five mile tour. It was so pretty. Snow, mountains, and cute little mountain scenes along the way. I was glad I took my head band. It kept my ears warm on the ride.

I rode the carousel too. You're never too old to ride the carousel!

Like I said, it was really cold. Bruce bought two large Dollywood cups, like the one hanging above the counter. They filled them with hot chocolate for us and then we had free refills the rest of the night. Keeps ya warm, I tell ya!!! Of course, that much hot chocolate also makes you a little bit sick. Especially when you get three refills that size. LOL

We rode the Ferris wheel and can I say that I will never ride that again? Bruce had me scared out of my mind. Usually I don't get scared and he's the one who hates heights. But the roles reversed about five minutes into loading the ride. Ugh!

We saw Twas the Night Before Christmas. It was cute and the little children around me just giggled and laughed. I think I enjoyed that most of all.

All of the buildings were lit up from top to bottom. ALL of the buildings! I just love it.

My darlin'....

We stopped at the lake to see the Carol of the Trees. Christmas music played and the trees would light up in different colors. It was nice. Plus the lights just bounced off of the lake because it was frozen.

They had beautiful trees all over the park.

Someone was kind enough to take our picture together for us.

This was my favorite building. I loved the trees out in front.

We went back to Dollywood this morning to walk around and see one show we missed. Then stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch using a gift card one of our sigma teen families gave us for Christmas before coming back down the mountain.

It was a fabulous trip and I am so glad and thankful we were able to go.

Happy Anniversary, babe! I love you and had a great time with you.